What was the one thing about your venue that made you know it was the one?

During my time as an actress I booked a gig for a wedding photo shoot at Angel Orensanz Foundation. To be absolutely honest, I almost didn’t even walk through the front door when I arrived onset. I looked up at the old building with it’s paint peeled towering gates from the sidewalk where I was standing and I instantly had visions of being in a real life situation resembling the first two-minutes of every Law & Order: SVU episode. I took a deep breath, walked through the front doors and my heart stopped. The perfectly preserved Gothic interior majestically lit as if it were frozen in time, glow of the chandeliers above; it was the most magical hidden gem in the City and you would never suspect it from the outside. From that point on, I knew if I ever got married I couldn’t imagine a more perfect location.

Which three details from your wedding were your favorites?

My wedding planner, Maya Kalman of Swank Productions, and I had four months to plan everything. During our initial consultation I had mentioned the idea of maybe doing a few DIY projects myself to justify the typical costs of a Manhattan wedding. One of my suggestions was using paper flowers to create a really personal and romantic feel, but I cringed at the thought of tissue paper pom-poms or crepe paper flowers that didn’t look realistic. I wanted paper flowers that looked lush, organic, luxurious and had durability. After a few hours of fruitless online searching I just decided I was going to make my own. Had I made paper flowers before? No. Had I made anything out of paper or even picked up a glue gun since my days in Girl Scouts? Absolutely not. What stemmed from an idea of maybe creating five or ten flowers blossomed into a collection of over 700 uniquely handcrafted individual pieces of floral artwork from personalized escort cards, boutonnieres and corsages to a cascading bridal bouquet and five tier wedding cake dripping in vines.

Give us the one moment in your wedding day you can’t stop thinking about.

We hosted our cocktail hour and reception on the mezzanine level of Angel Orensanz which was curtained off from the main room below. In lieu of the standard stadium announcement of the newlyweds followed by awkward transitional pauses, Scott and I opted for a subtle gesture to announce the end of cocktail hour, signal the start of dinner, and our arrival to the reception. As the lights began to rise in the main room, the music of “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine softly mixed in, and one by one each panel of curtain upstairs was pulled back to allow the guests to watch us during our first dance from above.